One Hundred Years of Flight USAF Chronology ... - The Air University
One Hundred Years of Flight USAF Chronology ... - The Air University
One Hundred Years of Flight USAF Chronology ... - The Air University
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1981<br />
1981<br />
January–June: Operating from Corpus Christi, Texas, and Little Rock,<br />
Arkansas, C–130s delivered 500 tons <strong>of</strong> arms, ammunition, helicopters,<br />
and other war materiel to El Salvador to help the government<br />
combat leftist guerrillas.<br />
January 11: <strong>The</strong> Boeing Company delivered the first <strong>USAF</strong> air-launched<br />
cruise missiles to the 416th Bombardment Wing at Griffiss <strong>Air</strong> Force<br />
Base, New York. Capable <strong>of</strong> delivering a nuclear weapon to a target<br />
1,500 miles away, the new missiles contained a terrain-contour-matching<br />
system that allows extremely low-altitude flight to avoid detection by<br />
enemy radar.<br />
January 18–25: Two C–9 Nightingales transported 52 Americans held by<br />
Iran for 444 days from Tehran to Rhein-Main <strong>Air</strong> Base, Germany. After<br />
four days at the <strong>USAF</strong> hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany, the former<br />
hostages returned to the United States on a VC–137.<br />
March 17: McDonnell Douglas <strong>Air</strong>craft Company delivered the first KC–10A<br />
Extender tanker/cargo aircraft to Strategic <strong>Air</strong> Command. Substantially<br />
larger than the KC–135 tanker/cargo aircraft, the Extender not<br />
only could carry more fuel and cargo, but also could refuel more types<br />
<strong>of</strong> aircraft, including other KC–10s.<br />
<strong>The</strong> primary mission <strong>of</strong> the KC–10A Extender was aerial refueling, but it also carried<br />
cargo and passengers.<br />
April 12: John W. Young and Capt. Robert L. Crippen, United States Navy,<br />
flew the Columbia into space—the first space shuttle to do so.<br />
Launched like a rocket, the shuttle landed like an airplane and could<br />
be flown again.<br />
May 2: An airborne laser destroyed an aerial target for the first time when the<br />
<strong>Air</strong>borne Laser Laboratory (ALL), a modified KC–135 aircraft armed<br />
124